Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1543434
W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 7th Penn State's place in CBS- Sports.com's Big Ten foot- ball power rankings following the con- clusion of the January transfer window. The Nittany Lions trailed defending national champion Indiana, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, USC and Washington on writer Will Backus' list. "Penn State fired James Franklin midseason, embarked on an appar- ently bumbling coaching search and still landed on one of the best options possible by poaching Iowa State's Matt Campbell," Backus wrote. 6 Dual meet victories by the Penn State wrestling team in a 21-day span from Jan. 10-30. The Nittany Lions outscored Rutgers, Iowa, North- western, Indiana, Maryland and Ne- braska by a combined margin of 254-15. The Lions dropped only four bouts in those six victories, with three of their losses coming in a 26-12 team win over No. 5 Nebraska on Jan. 30 at the Bryce Jordan Center. 19th Rocco Becht's spot on ESPN's list of the top 100 players who changed schools during the January transfer portal window. The redshirt senior quarterback fol- lowed Campbell from Iowa State to Penn State in January and is the Nit- tany Lions' presumed starter this fall. "Becht has played a ton of foot- ball," analyst Tom Luginbill noted. "He makes sound adjustments at the line of scrimmage, he gets the ball out on time when his first read is there and he quickly gets to his second read when his first read isn't there." Two other Iowa State-to-Penn State transfers made ESPN's list: senior tight end Benjamin Brahmer at No. 43 and junior safety Marcus Neal Jr. at No. 44. 20th Penn State's place in On3's composite "way too early" top-25 poll. Of the nine media outlets that were incorporated into the rankings, On3 was the most optimistic about the Nittany Lions' prospects in Year 1 of the Campbell era, with the website's panel of experts — Chris Low, Brett McMurphy, Pete Nakos, JD PicKell, Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman — placing them 14th. The only outlet that didn't include PSU in its rankings was The Athletic. Ohio State topped the composite rankings, followed by Texas, Georgia, Indiana and Oregon. 46 Scholarship players who left Penn State during the January transfer window. The Nittany Lions, who also lost four walk-ons, had the third-most outgoing transfers among Power Four teams. Only Oklahoma State (64) and Iowa State (54) had more. Twenty-four of those Cyclone transfers ended up following Campbell to State College. 62nd Penn State's place in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings for the class of 2026. The Nittany Lions came in 16th among Big Ten teams, with only Wis- consin (63rd) and Nebraska (93rd) ranking lower. The Lions added 13 players in the final two months of the recruiting cycle after landing only two prospects — four-star defensive end Jackson Ford and three-star quarter- back Peyton Falzone — during the De- cember signing period. 217th Elijah Reeder's stand- ing among all pros- pects nationally in the Rivals Industry Ranking, which incorporates the grades of the three major recruiting websites. Reeder, a four-star defensive end from Bayville, N.J., is the highest-ranked player in Penn State's 2026 class. He's slightly higher in Rivals' rankings, com- ing in 205th overall, 24th among edge rushers and fourth in New Jersey. 700 Career victories for Penn State men's volleyball coach MARK PAVLIK after his Nittany Lions swept Saint Francis in Loretto, Pa., on Feb. 7. Pavlik, who has been in charge of the PSU program since 1995, owned a career record of 704-245 heading into a matchup with Merrimack on Feb. 27. He is only the fourth coach in NCAA men's volleyball history to surpass the 700-win plateau, joining UCLA's Al Scates (1,239), Ball State's Don Shondell (769) and Ohio State's Pete Hanson (712). Pavlik is the only one of those coaches who is still active, but that will change in a few months. He announced in December that he will be retiring at the conclusion of the 2026 season. +5000 Penn State's odds of winning the national championship in 2026, per the BetMGM sportsbook. There are 15 teams with better odds, a list headed by Ohio State at +600. Four other Big Ten teams are ahead of the Lions: Or- egon (+700), Indiana (+800), Michigan (+2500) and USC (+4000). By The Numbers M A R C H 2 0 2 6 17 PHOTO BY MEGAN SMARKUSKY/PENN STATE ATHLETICS